Drug testing is mandated or strongly supported by many political and regulatory groups and private industry. Hiring or continued employment may depend on a drug-free test. Urine-based testing is a widely practiced way of detecting the use of controlled substances or substances of abuse. Not too surprisingly, those who have found themselves placed in the predicament of having been exposed to certain drugs, either purposefully or inadvertently, and receiving a request for drug testing, have identified and begun using chemicals which mask or interfere with the chemistries used to detect certain drugs. These chemicals are called adulterants. These adulterants can be readily obtained by consumers, being that they have a number of uses and are readily available through many consumer or retail channels. For example, adulterants now showing up with increasing frequency are certain oxidizing agents, particularly nitrite salts, Cr(VI) salts and the alkali metal hypochlorites, e.g., sodium hypochlorite or common bleach.
Various compositions and methods are presently available for detecting an adulterant in urine samples. For example, Kell in U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,370 disclosed a method for detecting a diuretic in a urine sample. However, there continues to be a need for a better composition and method for detecting the presence of adulterants such as oxidizing agents in urine samples.